Reflections
by BrownEyedDevil
Summary: A beautiful fall day has Rogue looking back on her life with Logan. Set after X3, straight up happy, fluffy Rogan, Oneshot. I can't write summaries, go check for yourself


**It is after midnight, I was desperate to get my other story going and there is this fluff bunny again, that annoying little creature. To make sure it leaves me alone I decided to just let it all out and since it's Friday (well... technically) and I enjoyed a glass of wine in front of the fireplace (it wasn't the entire bottle, there's still some in there, see) I decided to publish this.**

**So this story is brought to you by insomnia and red wine, it doesn't contain foul language or smut (I know some of you already lost interest right now) and can be read by everyone, except those of you that are allergic to fluff and get itchy and irritated. Sorry to you guys.**

**Please give this a chance, will you, since I'm not very good at writing the stuff that's all about happy and not much about making people laugh.**

**I'd like to thank the wine and the fire for keeping me warm, my cat for that and the encouraging purring-not so much the lying down on my keyboard or arms, kinda makes it hard to type, and my husband for causing something that provided me with knowledge for certain descriptions in this story :P Don't want to spoil anything so I'll hush now.**

**AFTER telling you all for the umpteenth time that I don't own squat, my name isn't Marvel or -cries- Disney. If I did own the X-Men Wolverine would be mighty busy. Uhm yeah. I do not get paid for this, wouldn't that be awesome. If I would earn any money with this I'd invest into a very quick cloning procedure that would allow me to clone full grownups instead of having little babies that have to grow up first. Don't ask^^  
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The second I look up and out the kitchen window I can't help but smile. The weather turned around again, like it does so often out here, and it is pretty warm for a fall day. In the previous years we haven't really had a whole season of fall, two weeks of leaves turning beautiful bright colors before the first snow set in at the most. I love the colors out there right now and wish I could just go out and go for a ride. But someone would kill me if I even went down the porch steps all by myself, so I grab my sandwich and sit out on the porch instead, wrapping up in a blanket, watching Chomp and Sooky barking at a chipmunk sitting on the tool shed. I've always wanted a large dog to keep me company, to look after me and protect me and I got so much more. Chomp, a wolf mutt, and Sooky, a large shepherd, soon had four pups and the whole pack lives here to look out for me, along with the state of the art security system provided by out fellow X-Men. And of course there's something much more threatening here to look after me, to hover over me so protectively even germs run for the hills. But in case the big bad Wolverine is out on a mission or, like now, squirrels away wood for the winter, I'm safe. He can spend hours on end outside in the woods dragging out branches and I swear that he sometimes takes down some trees on his own, judging by the sounds I hear sometimes. But it keeps him happy, he doesn't need to stay inside for too long which makes him edgy anyways, and it keeps him from running. He doesn't even ride his bike anymore, it's the good old truck to the grocery store, that's it.

Chomp lies down on the porch next to my chair and puts his nose on my foot under my blanket. Sooky follows soon after, looking up at me from brown eyes, asking for some scraps of my sandwich. Chomp always used to try and climb up on my lap because a part of him still thinks he's a puppy when in fact he towers over me when I sit on the floor with him next to me. But nobody should dare and try to approach this house without my consent. The other night when Logan was out on a mission, it had to be important because he stays in shouting distance these days, I heard a car, most likely a truck that wasn't ours, coming up the driveway. And where we live that is unusual, we live in the middle of the woods. It was in the middle of the night, too. The dogs were outside so I didn't worry about it too much, if all else had failed I'm still a mutant. But I heard some angry snarls, barking and finally, at least two guys screamed. The engine revved up shortly after and a minute later, six yapping dogs were on the porch, proudly presenting their loot- a red baseball cap, a few scraps of jeans, a pocket of a green army jacket and a crowbar.

The next day two guys from a trailer park were beaten up severely by an unknown and very angry guy. When police arrived at the scene said angry guy was sitting at my kitchen table with a beer and some leftover pot roast from the day before, smiling content and mumbling inaudible curses under his breath. What can I say, that was just one more moment in my life that made me feel like the luckiest woman on earth.

The dogs stir and I know that I will hear a quad and the excited barking of the four younger dogs in a minute or so. I absorbed his powers but the hearing along with everything else has vanished a few months ago.

I walk around the porch to check in with the horses. Because I wanted a horse and I got two, I'm spoiled, I know. But that's Logan's approach to a relationship. His woman wants, his woman gets. Unless it's about a wedding, because from many conversations he must have listened in on in the common room, I was absolutely not keen on getting hitched-who would have thought Logan would be the one pushing to tie the knot in a somewhat proper manner. Maybe he wanted to make up for his proposal, which I loved but it's certainly not a story to tell to your kids. After months of coy flirting, lots of hugs and his goodnight kisses wandering south from my forehead to my nose he had stormed into my room one night when I was about to fall asleep, pretty literally thrown himself at me and kissed me roughly. After the initial shock, it was my first kiss after the cure, after my powers coming back and me gaining control, and it was Logan after all-he kissed me again, more gently. In fact I had been surprised that he displayed such tenderness I had never thought he was capable of. He made love to me that night, and I couldn't have wished for a better first time. Of course he knew, everyone must have known, I put my first kiss into a coma so physical contact that lasted that long had been impossible for me. I honestly think I had never been so exhausted in my life and when I was about to drift off to sleep I heard a rumbling in his chest under me and he spoke up.

"You know, if we keep this up like that around the mansion we should get married."

"Let's leave then."

He had looked at me with that cocked eyebrow of his I had always loved, still do.

"So you say you don't want to be my wife?"

"That's not what I said. But why should we get married just because people think it's the right thing to do? Since when do you care?"

He had taken my face into both his hands.

"Because I think it's the right thing to do. I don't do half-assed, so it's either gonna be all the way or.."

That's all I wanted to hear, because the other option really wasn't one and I understood his need to officially put a claim to me. Heck, it was all I could have ever dreamed of and more. Of course I wanted to stay with him, of course I wanted all this. Suddenly I felt silly for being so adamant about marriage before. "Never", what a silly thing to say.

But instead of heading to Vegas the next day we had a small ceremony at the mansion two months later, after all that was all the family we had back then. The professor walked me down the aisle, Jubes had been my maid of honor. Scott, can you believe it, had taken on the part as best man and all in all it was a nice little ceremony. We got a little drunk, well, I did, mostly because I was nervous about the honeymoon nobody told me anything about. It was a nice little road trip to Canada and Logan's cabin where we shacked up for two incredible weeks without contact to the rest of the world and without getting dressed much. At all, actually.

When we came back I got my wedding present from him and to that point I had never seen him that nervous. A short drive away from the mansion we turned into a little dirt road that led us through the woods for a good twenty minutes before opening up on a little valley-and a pretty little block house. Not so little, but pretty. Complete with barn and tool shed and security system. It had been completely furnished and simeone had already brought our stuff over, all facts that added to his nervousness. But I loved it and we've been living here ever since, within range of MIM as I like to call it-Mutant Instant Messenger. The professor calls us when needed, and up until a few months ago I have been working as a teacher. I miss my students and the history lessons I gave, but it's been too tiring for me. Logan also gave up on his danger room lessons for now, Warren has taken them over, he's been doing pretty well with the phys ed too. Logan really wasn't meant to watch over a bunch of kids playing volleyball.

Life out here has been peaceful until... well until we sat outside roughly two months after our wedding, I had just gotten used to our new home and it was actually the first night without anyone visiting. We had thrown some steaks on the barbecue and were now sitting back in our chairs, like an old couple I had never wanted to be part of, watching Sooky we had adopted a few weeks before from an animal shelter-she had looked scruffy and was too old with her five years to be easily adopted so of course I took right to her. That and she looked like she was smiling all the time. Logan wasn't too impressed but after a few days I heard him talk to her outside and I'm still not sure who charmed who here.

As my heavy eyelids started to betray me and fall shut three things happened simultaneously. Logan's hand that had been playing lazily with my hair stopped, the dog sat up and I heard a branch crack in the woods before us. A few moments later I picked up a smell that was somehow familiar but I couldn' put a face to it. And who would walk through the woods to visit us? Logan tensed up and motioned towards the house before getting up and into his fighting stance.

"Go back inside."

"No I won't."

"Go!"

But it was too late. I could hear a low humming now, the bridal march. Whoever it was had some musical talent, though it sounded menacing somehow. And then there he was, breaking through the branches and I instantly knew that wearing denim like it's a second skin must be somehow encoded in DNA. Sabretooth looked a lot more groomed than he did last time I had seen him, his hair was combed back int a ponytail and he wore a black longsleeve shirt. And he was carrying a puppy with a red bow around the neck? Now that confused me. The bad guy shows up sneaking up on us like that and brings a puppy? Then again, he wasn't really stealthy. I had seen Logan in action and had gotten a pretty good idea of Sabretooth's abilities, too. The only way he could have been more obvious would have been bringing a marching band. Or, what regular people would do, call ahead. But I have to say he never struck me as the regular type.

"Congrats, little brother."

"Didn't I tell you to stay the fuck away?"

The situation couldn't have been more confusing. On the one hand my... goodness, brother-in-law I guess, very casual and pointedly friendly, on the other hand my husband, on edge and making sure he wass between him and me. And I was the one to wish we had actual family to invite to our wedding so some aunt could embarrass me by getting too drunk or some brothers could get into a fight. Be careful what you wish for.

"You didn't invite your own brother to your wedding?"

"Do I need to remind you that you kidnapped my wife last time you saw her? Nearly got her killed."

"Nearly is the word here. And she turned into a very beautiful woman I have to say."

What was I supposed to do? Thank him? Ask him if he wanted a drink and the half charred last steak cooling on the barbecue?

"Go. Now."

"But James, I even brought you a present. I'm sure your wife will love that little guy."

I got a little sick of them talking about me like I wasn't there so I decidedly took a few steps forward to take the puppy out of his arms, making good use of my heightened senses. His heartbeat was a little accelerated, but I couldn't smell anything suspicious. Only aftershave, but that rarely is a dead giveaway for betrayal. Logan grumbled at my stupidity but I really didn't see any reason to be hostile. Aside from the fact that this guy kidnapped me knowing full well what Magneto had planned for me. And all those things he had done to Logan. Well, it was actually stupid. But he was also family. You have to deal with that fact, no matter how insane or homicidal they are, they are family. Grasping for something, anything to say I stood there for a moment.

"Uhm... thank you... Victor."

He smiled at me and it looked genuine, stroking the puppy we would later name Chomp for silly reasons I sensed that Logan was relaxing a little. And after a few more moments of staring at each other, they actually sat down and talked for a while. It was still awkward, but it was something. Victor demanded to see wedding pictures, made fun of his little brother-I will never get used to that thought-and threw a few compliments my way. It was like an episode of Twilight Zone but enjoyable enough-until he got up to leave and wished us luck, telling Logan

"I really hope you don't get this one killed, I like her."

Which was a way to compliment me and offend his brother at the same time and Victor clearly enjoyed that. We didn't hear again from him until a few weeks ago which made me think that there either is some link between the two or, more likely, he is checking in on us from time to time. He was too well informed.

A pair of strong arms wraps around me and I instantly lean back, enjoying his hands gently stroking my belly. He has to reach out pretty far to be able to do that and it feels nice.

"What have you two been up to out here, huh?"

"Nothing. I've just been thinking about the things that happened lately."

"Are you sure you didn't think about sneaking out to sit on one of those monsters over there?"

"You bought those monsters and told me they were absolutely harmless and worth their price and even if I wanted to do that, how am I supposed to get up there like this?"

Even for eight, almost nine months pregnant I am huge. Or at least I feel like that. Waddling like a fat drunk penguin sure isn't fun anymore, neither is being off balance and even clumsier than I have been as a teen. The only time I don't mind looking like an engorged pumpkin is when he looks at me that way. He thinks I'm this marvelous creature he can stare at awe struck for hours and I kind of enjoy that. I have never before felt so pretty, in spite of my pants not fitting anymore and the fact that I can barely reach the pots on the stove when cooking now. Logan keeps laughing at my belly getting hot when I make dinner. And his hands. I could talk about them for hours. They are better than medicine and every woman should have a pair of these, especially the pregnant ones. They never get tired of massaging my feet, my lower back that keeps hurting with all the weight I'm toting around and if they don't do that they are most likely to be found on my stomach waiting patiently for our child to kick the crap out of them. He still looks like a little boy watching a rocket take off every time, though he would most likely never admit to that in public.

Neither would he admit how scared he was when we found out I was pregnant. Not that it had been a big surprise, we hadn't been very careful about protection and after a year of nothing I had sort of assumed I couldn't get pregnant anyway. So when I started to throw up all over the place we automatically thought it was a stomach flu. Because whoever called it morning sickness needs to be hanged, shot, and beheaded at the same time. I was sick all day, couldn't keep down any food at all until I discovered the miraculous ginger. It really does help. What didn't help was my husband freaking out. He went out for a very long drive after we had stared at the test for a minute or two. Came back, pulling me into a crushing hug just to let go right away and look down on my stomach. Ever since then everything had been focused on not hurting the baby, he would have wrapped me in bubble wrap if I had let him. Every time I threw up he looked like he wanted to stab himself for "causing all this" and I started to doubt wanting him around during labor. It took a long talk and a lot of bitching on my part until he wrapped his head around the fact that everything was alright and that millions of women before me had a child and managed to pull through. He's more relaxed about it now, that the initial shock has worn down.

"You've been cooking again."

I can feel him smile against my neck.

"I figured you'd be hungry when you come back. And if not, it's not like it's going to be wasted."

I have developed a very uhm, healthy appetite, too. This kid demands a lot of nutrition already.

"Let's go in then, food sounds really good right now. Since I have to wait until I can pick up other, much more enjoyable activities."

He pulls me a little closer and I grin. He doesn't have to wait, but he wants to. The typical fear of men that they could hurt their child while sleeping with the mother. Though in this case, it just might be safer. There's a part of him that likes to play it rough and as much as I'm usually up to that, it might not be the best thing to do.

We head inside and I enjoy the feeling of really being home. I never thought I would have that again, never thought I would have a person that I could trust completely, or even have a family. A real family. A great feeling of peace settles in over me as I move to the kitchen to help set the table. I know this will not be a permanent state of being,e specially not with us being mutants and him being him, but or now I enjoy the feeling of... being normal. A normal wife, mother to be, woman. With a husband that has an adamantium infused skeleton, feral senses and the ability to heal, is brutally honest, likes to fight and be reckless and is protective and possessive to a point where other women would freak out. I look at him nuzzling his beer with the fridge door still open, sleeves rolled up and sweat on his forehead.

Yes, I am the luckiest woman on this planet.


End file.
